Today’s younger generation simply doesn’t understand what life was like before Facebook. And it’s true – Facebook has become an international corporate powerhouse that has changed the way people all across the world interact and connect with each other. Some people are even so addicted to the service that they spend most of their productive waking hours constantly messaging their friends, scanning social updates, and clicking on the latest Internet videos. And their user base statistics are nothing short of staggering. Currently, the social media site gets about 1.5 billion active users per month. And each day, there are about 4.5 billion ‘likes’ generated, and each day 968 million people log into their Facebook accounts.
But even though this social media platform is indispensably useful, it’s not all sunshine and roses. There are a lot of problems with using Facebook, especially from a global perspective. FB is easily one of the most frequently used social networking services around the world, but there are many radical groups, criminals, organizations, and even governments that heavily police and monitor what people say on Facebook. For example, if you live in a country in Southeast Asia and you make a statement that is offensive to the government or religion, the powers that be could easily trace your activity through your unprotected Internet connection – even if you made a post on a FB profile that doesn’t contain any links to or images of your actual identity. Another terrible example of this type of problem exists in Mexico, where the drug cartels and gangs have repeatedly shot and hung reporters and average citizens who made comments on social media that were deemed to be offensive to their organization.
But there is another common problem that a lot of people run into. You’ll find that Facebook is frequently blocked at different locations for competing reasons.
National Censorship
The first reason that you’ll find Facebook is blocked is due to national censorship. And the root reasons that governments choose to censor Facebook can be very different. For example, many countries don’t want people to have access to radical religious ideologies that conflict with the respect and traditions of their nation’s religion(s). In addition, in many countries around the world, it is illegal to make statements about politicians, public figures, and governmental institutions due to a limited freedom of speech. And because Facebook has the power to share video messages, comments, messages, and ideas like wildfire, a lot of governments want to prevent a political upheaval or drastic change in thought by barring access to these types of ideas.
But if you’re travelling or you just want to catch up with a friend in another country, you may not be able to because of the censorship programs.
Professional Censorship
The second place that a lot of people will find Facebook blocked is at work and in professional settings. For network administrators and organizational leaders, Facebook can be a real hassle. Not only does it eat up valuable resources such as organizational bandwidth and network services, but it also wastes a lot of time. I’m sure most people know at least one person that can do without a Facebook update every few hours or so, and Facebook can crush productivity. For these reasons, a lot of organizations choose to completely block Facebook. But what do you do if you have some spare time and you don’t want to twiddle your thumbs to pass the time?
Fortunately, in either scenario you can easily unblock FB with a VPN connection. Furthermore, a VPN tunnel will help protect your data with encryption that will prevent external parties like ISPs, governmental organizations, and criminal organizations from intercepting your data and using it against you. While you can do this with a proxy service, a proxy service won’t protect your data while it is in transit to the Facebook servers, and you could easily face some terrible consequences for only checking on your Facebook updates. So let’s take a look at the best VPNs for Facebook that will help you access your social media content safely and securely.
ExpressVPN is our second choice, and they regularly surface as one of the best VPN providers for a variety of reasons. First of all, they offer top-notch speed and reliability with their VPN connections and they have servers in 78 countries. In regions where Facebook is blocked for governmental purposes, you’ll be able to find a VPN server near your location that won’t tack on large amounts of latency. Furthermore, they have phenomenal 24/7 customer support as well as a 30-day money back guarantee. Their service is fantastic for accessing Facebook, but their service is also well-suited for a variety of other applications. The only two downsides to their service is that they are based out of the US and they cost more than the majority of VPN service providers. Though some people are hesitant to use a VPN service that is based in the US because of N.S.A. scandals, this likely isn’t a large concern for people that just want to check their latest status updates.
Private Internet Access is our next pick for accessing Facebook, and though their service is also well-suited for a variety of applications, they are great for those solely looking to unlock Facebook because their service is cheaper than just about every other service on the market. Furthermore, they have tremendous capacity because they have over 3096 servers located in 24 countries, so you won’t ever have to worry about a server becoming too bogged down with other users. They also let you connect up to 5 devices with a single account, so you’ll be able to securely access Facebook on all of your devices. Lastly, they do provide a 7-day money back guarantee should you be dissatisfied for any reason.
Another fantastic VPN alternative for accessing FBook is VyprVPN. A lot of people like their service because they are actually based out of Switzerland, which has some of the most lax Internet laws and regulations for VPN providers in the world – which is one reason why they are able to have a zero-logging policy. They also have a free trial so you can test their service out with Facebook, and they have over 700 servers in 50 countries. While they only allow up to 2 simultaneous connections per account, they are reasonable priced and cheaper than ExpressVPN.
This VPN provider isn’t as old or mature as services like ExpressVPN, but they do have several attractive features. While they only have servers in 16 countries, they do cover all of the major regions and are constantly expanding their VPN service backbone and infrastructure. One of their most attractive features is the ability to use 6 devices with the VPN tunnel per user account, which is more than just about every other provider. Lastly, they are fairly inexpensive. Their service only costs about $4.90 per month with an annual subscription, and they also do a good job of helping you unlock your FB content.
In order to be able to get around restrictions, you need to get a VPN that offers an extensive selection of servers and that supports effective unblocking technology. Surfshark strives to provide users online freedom and security through a network that features more than 800 servers in over 50 countries. It is capable of defeating censorship and online blocks that stop you from accessing Facebook. Surfshark has a no logs policy and it has software that is easy to use. Tools like kill switch and multiHop will enhance further your experience.
CyberGhost is a well-established provider that can overcome restrictions and keep your information protected with high encryption. Its vast selection of servers covering over 50 countries and the strong commitment to privacy are two key elements that make CyberGhost a suitable solution to bypass censorship and access Facebook securely. CyberGhost doesn’t keep logs and it allows you to connect up to 7 devices at the same time. This allows you to enjoy Facebook at home or on the go, without hassle.
